Mahoutsukai no Yome – 20

Poor Chise – you’d think she’d have long since been an omelette by now.

Chise is a good girl, no question about it – the sort of child that somber adults say is “too good for this world” in stories, after something terrible happens to them. It’s hard not to feel badly for her, given how many bad things already have happened to her, and the timing of them. But truthfully, it’s the timing of events in Chise’s life that give this story pathos, so in dramatic terms we really couldn’t have it any other way.

Elias’ astute observation that “none of your selfish acts are for yourself” artfully sums up both her arc and their relationship, I think. Chise is only too willing to throw her life away to help someone who needs it, but the problem is that her life is no longer hers alone to give – and it’s not just Elias I’m talking about here. Her decision to help the dragon child at any cost certainly meets Elias’ description, and his acquiescence shows that he’s come to realize that there’s no point in trying to dissuade her when Chise’s mind is set on an action.

The best-laid plans of mages are one thing, but reality has a way of intruding. Elias’ idea is to have Chise absorb the enraged dragon’s excess magic (which has in a sense de-evolved it into a primordial state), and to then absorb it himself before it can destroy her. But when he’s taken out by a bolt of fire and the dragonling is rampaging in the skies over London, Chise (as you’d expect) decides to take matters into her own hands. She discards her bracelet and takes the dragon’s power into herself, which seems to have the desired effect – in subduing the dragon, anyway.

“Wow!” indeed, omelette-girl. Chise is in a real mess (again) as a result of her selflessness – cursed by dragon magic, with a dragon arm and claws and a ticking clock until the magic destroys her body. It is a shame that all this is happening just as she’s decided life is worth living, but there’s that timing thing rearing its ugly head. That said, it’s progress that Chise now sees her existence as something worth fighting for – and there can be no question that Elias has developed a strong enough attachment to her that her placing himself in danger is enough to prompt him to anger.

These two are indeed no longer just “using” each other, that’s for certain. As Joseph looks on and muses on the potential usefulness of Chise’s curse (how is he doing that? Hmm…) a woman arrives at Elias’ house and announces herself as Mariel (Sakamoto Maaya) – the person who purchased dragon’s blood at the auction. She says she’s a witch, and invites Chise to become one too – intimating that it’s the only chance Chise has of beating the curse. Elias is reflexively resistant, but gives in soon enough – an acknowledgment, perhaps, that whatever downside there is to Chise sitting in with Mariel’s coven, the alternative is far worse.

Joseph is able to know what is going on thanks to what happened in the middle of episode 18…
…when Stella and her family are walking in London, she feels a prick on her neck as Joseph walks by. In the manga (end of chapter 30) you see a tentacle whip out from his hair before she yelps. Right before that, it is apparent that Ashen Eyes provided him with the target, because he says that he benefits from helping Joseph, and that “…I find nothing more amusing than watching the human heart waver and react”.

Another clue is when Mariel walks by and exchanges greetings with Stella in this episode. In chapter 37 of the manga…Show Spoiler ▼

…Mariel looks back at Stella and says “…My, what a pity. Such a young little girl. I wonder who could have done something so awful to her”.

Also, Mariel didn’t purchase any blood, that was the deal spoken between her and Chise at the auction but was nulled when the dragon escaped. However, in the manga…Show Spoiler ▼

…Chise allows Mariel to take some of her blood instead, since she is under the dragon’s curse. She thinks the blood will still be human but with an echo of dragon. Of course, Elias refuses as the blood will still be cursed and could harm whoever takes it, but Mariel is fine with that. As she puts it, “Curses are a witch’s specialty after all”.

That’s why I really despise the idea of characters like Crazy Joe and Ashen Eye: plot-like invincible, annoying just because they had the knowledge of eons, and reeks of the nature of Inuyasha’s Naraku of coming back in spite no one really likes them, not even themselves. I wonder if Titania and Oberon could just spank Ashen Eye just for the fact that he’s messing with one of their favourite daughters?
Everything points to Stella being used as a second body for Chise, and that’s gonna end in tragedy, no matter how you look at it

what a fucking joke, 4 episodes to go and only now they decide to start developing main villain Cartaphilus, what a terrible outdated story design, i would rather take a cliffhanger ending without knowing Chise’s fate. I had enough of this shit in Naruto and Bleach alike.

Who knows how this will all end? Except for a few minor omissions, the anime has been following the manga pretty faithfully so far. As each episode usually contains material covered in two chapters of the manga, we might get somewhat closure to the whole arc regarding Joseph (though I doubt it). We might get a cliff-hanger ending, or even an anime-original ending. I so want there to be another season but since we’re almost caught up to the manga so far, it will probably be a long, long time before that happens…

Did anybody understand what did Joseph actually do to the dragon?
He usually do some sort of chimera, but that dragon seemed normal until the blob thing came out and the dragon transformed.
So was that Joseph plan from the beginning? To sell a rampaging dragon at an auction?
Did he expect Chise to get the dragon curse?

He didn’t do anything to it. He experimented on the other one to use as material for his arm but as far as we know it’s still alive. The other one he sold to the auction because he needed funds to continue his research. The dragon’s own fear and despair caused her to undergo a quick transformation (similar to how the other winged dragon became bigger because he wanted Chise to be able to ride on top of him in episode 10).

Also, a continuity error ~ everyone refers to the dragon as a “he” in this episode, whereas it was confirmed to be a female dragon in episode 19.

What are you talking about? They’re dragons, not dragoons. And both the anime and manga specifically mention that some are male and female. I’m simply pointing out that the dragon at the auction was confirmed by Seth Noel as being female, yet the translation for episode 20 uses “he” instead of “she”.

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